


The Present Time

by Yeah_Toast



Series: Interesting Times [5]
Category: Arrow (TV 2012), DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV), The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Bribery, Hearing Voices, M/M, Major Character Injury, Poor Life Choices, The Shreveport Job, from the future, ignoring Medical Advice
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-13
Updated: 2019-10-13
Packaged: 2020-12-14 06:07:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 620
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21010985
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yeah_Toast/pseuds/Yeah_Toast
Summary: "The present time has one advantage over every other – it is our own."Charles Caleb Colton~~~A job goes wrong for everyone involved.





	The Present Time

**Author's Note:**

> I'm back?

The fire rages around him sweltering and intense, and Len desperately crawls through the smoke, searching for Mick.

“Where is he,” Len sobs. “Help me!”

_“I cannot. Not yet.”_ It’s the first time the voice has ever sounded sorry. “If we change this, everything could unravel.”

“I don’t care. Whatever you’re trying to change, this is more important! Mick is more important!”

_“Even if it means your death?”_

“Yes!” Leonard cries. “Yes, please just help me help him.”

_“I’m afraid I still can’t. Much like your future is set in stone, so is this part of Mick’s past. Without it, he would be a different man.”_

“Fuck you,” Leonard spits, crawling towards a figure he can see in the distance. “Fuck you and your mystical bullshit.”

He finds Mick in the end, burnt beyond belief, but alive nonetheless. Coughing, and weak, he drags both of them free of the flames.

When the ambulance comes, he tells them exactly how long Mick has had his burns, down to the last second. He hopes that knowing the time till treatment will help, doesn’t know what he’ll do if it doesn’t.

Len wakes up in a hospital, Lisa sitting besides him.

“Mick?” He rasps.

There are tears in her eyes. “They don’t know if he’ll make it. He’s covered in second and third degree burns, and there was talk about skin grafts.”

_“He will survive. You both will.”_

“Shut up.” Len bites. “This is your fault.”

“What?” Lisa sniffles.

“Not you,” Len apologizes, “Can I have a moment alone?”

Lisa leaves, and all that’s left in the room is Len and the voice in his head,

“You did this,” he hisses. “You knew this was going to happen to him.”

_“I did.”_

“Why didn’t you help me? Why didn’t you stop it?”

_“This always had to happen, anything else and the timeline would change too much. This is how you survive.”_

“I don’t want to survive without him,” Len yells. “I won’t.”

_“You won’t have to. I will ensure you both survive this.”_

Len snorts, “Like I'll ever trust you again.”

Len escapes his room unseen, and he returns to the hospital only when he’s sure that the nurses have changed shifts and he’s stolen different clothes. He find’s Mick’s room easily, and stops to press a kiss to the brow of his unconcious lover.

“You’ll be safer with me gone.”

_“Don’t leave him.”_ The voice rages._ “We have a chance to fix this.”_

Len snarls, “There is no we, and you can’t fix this. I nearly got him killed, and you, you let me!”

He leaves Mick, making his way over to the nurses station ignoring the screams of rage in his head. He finds a competent, but harried looking man, and approaches him cautiously, hoping that he won’t be recognized.

“Rory Calhoun,” Len starts, using the alias that Mick had been checked in under. “Will he survive?”

“Are you family?” The man asks, but Len simply presses a gold coin from his stash into the man’s hand.

“There’s more of that to come if you do as I say. Rory is to receive the best possible care that this hospital offers, if another hospital offers better care, you get him transferred there. If you can do that and keep me updated on his status, you’ll be a rich man.”

The nurse pockets the coin. “How will I contact you?”

Len passes him a burner phone, and, with one last look over his shoulder, he leaves the hospital behind.

_“You’re making a mistake.”_ the voice seethes. _“This is something we were going to fix. You were supposed to stay this time.”_

“Stay,” Len scoffs. “We got him hurt. We’re lucky he’s alive!”


End file.
